South West one

Okehampton 24

Bideford 6

THE Okes will be pleased to gain revenge on Bideford in this latest encounter, but the hosts never really got out of third gear.

It was rare sunshine that greeted these two rivals as they locked horns for the second out of three occasions this campaign. A large sponsors’ day crowd eagerly anticipated a fiercely contested open game, which unfortunately never really materialised.

An unusual easterly wind blew up the still sticky underfoot pitch , slightly negating the slope advantage that Bideford had during the first 40 minutes.

The hosts, minus player coach Evans and late injury withdrawal Sizmur, started on the front foot but were denied an early score for a forward pass; an early sign of things to come. Okes early dominance failed to bring a try but did provide penalty chances aplenty. Five minutes had elapsed when Richie Friend stepped up to land the first of his afternoon’s penalties to make it 3-0 in the Okes’ favour.

Visitors Bideford boasted  some familiar faces in their ranks, with ex Oke’s youth products Dean Folland and Paul Thomes in their starting line-up. One less familiar face, sizable Kiwi winger Dylan Edmonds, was to have his afternoon abruptly ended by injury after only a quarter of an hour.

After a decent delay the game resumed and continued in a similar vein with Oke having the upper hand without ever really cutting loose. Two more penalties were landed by centre Richie Friend, with varying angles of loft, one after 20 minutes and another just two minutes later to make it 9-0 entering the second quarter. Oke’s lead was all the more satisfying as they had scored six points whilst down to 14 men for ten minutes, after young lock Carlie White fell foul of the man in the middle.

Bideford responded by having their best spell of the match in the ten minutes leading up to the break, and despite never really threatening to cross the home whitewash they did mount enough pressure to force two kickable penalty chances, both of which were potted by full back Chris Snell to reduce the Oke’s lead to a mere three points.

Okes then threatened again; Tom McGrattan being pulled back for a forward pass when in the clear, before Okes finally crossed for their first five pointer right on the half-time whistle. The ball was moved right from a midfield scrum, eventually a short pass put winger Luke Honeychurch clear up the right flank and he ran around behind the posts to leave an easy conversion which resulted in a 16-6 home advantage at the break.

The second half saw Bideford on the early offensive as they sought to reduce the arrears. They were failing to create any openings outside against Oke’s watertight midfield defence, but their pack drove to gain an early penalty chance. Snell pulled the kick wide though and the visitors never really threatened again.

Knock-ons and errors then abounded as both sides strangely struggled with their handling in decent conditions, defences were on top, until the Okes finally gained decent territory and another penalty was awarded. The reliable Richie Friend produced another strange flightpath, but was once again on target with the place kick to extend the host’s lead to 13 points with half an hour remaining.

The scrums had been fairly even throughout, but slowly Okes got a nudge on as the game drifted during the last quarter. Several promising field positions came to nothing though, even after Bideford were reduced to 14 men themselves for per-sistent infringements. Okes did manage to break through the resolute Biddy defence when stand off Rhys Palmer made an incisive break, finding Kevin Dennis on his shoulder but the visitors’ scramble defence managed to save the day.

Eight minutes remained when Bideford re-entered home territory, when the referee brandished a red card in the direction of Oke fly half Palmer to leave the Okes a man short once again.

The hosts mustered themselves for one last effort and went through several phases as the game finally loosened up a little. A scrum penalty was forced and a kick to the corner followed. The lineout was gathered and after a short drive, scrum half Joey Bruce saw space on the short side and released an unmarked Tom McGrattan - the number eight scooted over in the bottom right corner to seal the win. The tricky conversion was missed, but time was now just about up and the Okes had a rewarding — if slightly, underwhelming victory.

The match never quite had the intensity of derbies of yore, but another win moves Okehampton up the table and they are now on target to finish as the highest ranked Devon club in South West one — no mean feat in their first season back at this level, and after having a points deduction to boot.